Zadie Smith’s use of the conditional tense allows the reader to establish a mindset that the two men explore and take advantage of multiple villages. The main focus of the conditional tense is to provide the reader with the thought that the two men do this in more than one village. The word ‘if’ allows the reader to fully interpret the multitude of villages, rather than one. This is seen when the narrator starts to talk about the men going to villages where “alcohol is permitted” (Smith 5). The use of the conditional tense provides the reader with two options, alcohol in a village and non alcohol in a village. The options present two types of villages, which already shows that the two men have been to more than one village; this supports the
